Unions line up pay claims if talks fail

TRADE unions are likely to start bombarding private employers with separate pay claims if the social partnership talks do not yield increases in the coming days.

It is believed unions such as SIPTU already have a number of pay claims ready to be issued to hundreds of companies in the event they are snubbed by the Government and employer bodies in the latest round of talks.

The employee representatives will target key employers in each of the sectors to establish increases which can then be spread to other companies in that sector.

The tactic was used by SIPTU when the last round of talks stalled in November 2005. On that occasion the union wrote to 120 of its branches asking them to start the process of drawing up claims for more than 50,000 members whose deals were due to expire at the end of December.

However, in 2005 the talks were stalled mainly owing to non-pay issues such as representation of workers, though there was a pay element.

They got back on track because an accommodation was reached with employers which gave 10% pay increases over 27 months under the Towards 2016 pay deal.

However, this time such an agreement is looking far less likely, especially given the economic climate, which is much less buoyant than three years ago. The social partners gather in Government Buildings in pessimistic mood this morning as negotiations begin in earnest. The rest of the week is being set aside to discuss the issue and the debate will spread well beyond 72 hours unless one of the sides pulls out due to a lack of progress.

Employer bodies are unwilling to increase pay in the face of a downturn which, it claims, is driving or threatening to drive many of its members out of business.

The Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC) points out competitiveness is already suffering and an increased wage bill will only make matters worse. IBEC wants a pay freeze in the public sector and low to non-existent increases in the private sector.

The trade union movement maintains competitiveness is not an issue and insists the workforce will not accept anything less than significant pay increases which will enable them to comfortably adapt to inflationary increases.

Given the €450 million in Exchequer cuts announced yesterday, the Government is unlikely to be persuaded to back notable increases in the public sector pay packets.

It will find it especially hard to sell such moderation to the public sector unions given the near-zero increases through the last phase of benchmarking.

Health sector workers are already smarting from the perceived employment embargo which is affecting patient care.